Exploring crucial points on the path to enlightenment, Stages of the Path
literature continues to hold its place as one of the great treasures of
Buddhist thought. In this volume, Geshe Rabten presents a structured
explanation of the popular and practical text,
The Essential Nectar of Holy Doctrine,
by the eighteenth-century scholar Yeshe Tsondru. Geshe Rabten's
teachings reveal how we may see life's great value and, by taking up the
profound practice described herein, make the most of its abundant
opportunity.

In a voice both sweet and potent, The Essential Nectar reveals the essence of the path to enlightenment.

Geshe Rabten (192186) was born in Dargye in eastern Tibet. He studied at Sera Monastery in Lhasa, where he gained renown as a great scholar, debater, and meditation master. In 1959, he escaped to India, where he became the spiritual teacher of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche. In the mid 1960s Geshe Rabten was appointed as a religious assistant to His Holiness the Dalai Lama. On His Holinesss request he began teaching Dharma to Westerners in Dharamsala in 1969, and he went to live and teach in Switzerland in 1974. He founded Rabten Choeling Center (originally Tharpa Choeling) in Switzerland in 1979, where he lived and worked as spiritual director until he passed away in 1986.

3 Meditation 3: Death (177-200)
4 Meditation 4: The Sufferings of the Realms of Woe (210-238)
5 Meditation 5: The Practice ofTaking Refuge (239-252)
6 Meditation 6: How to Generate Confidence in the Laws of Actions and Results (253-264)

Part Three: Path if the Intermediate Person

7 Meditation 7: The Sufferings of the Happier Realms and the General Sufferings ofSamsara (265-296)
8 Meditation 8: How to Think about the Process ofFunctioning of Samsara, and Practise the Path to Liberation (297-304)

Part Four: Path of the Superior Person

9 Meditation 9: The Development of Bodhicitta (305-366)
10 Meditation 10: How to Train in the Six Perfections (367-382)
11 Meditation 11: How to Train in the Four Means of Attraction (383-384)
12 Meditation 12: How to Meditate on Quietude (385-393)
13 Meditation 13: How to Meditate on Insight (394-423)
14 Meditation 14: How to Enter the Adamantine Vehicle (424-425)

THE TEXT by Yeshe Tsndrü

APPENDICES

1 The Confession of Downfalls
2 A Lam rim Prayer by Je Tsongkhapa
3 Je Tsongkhapa on the Six Sufferings and the Three Sufferings
4 Je Tsongkhapa's Dedication Prayer
5 Structure of the Text